“There are none so blind, as those who will not see”.
This quote came to mind as I read the latest editorial in the New Zealand Medical Journal (NZMJ). Titled ‘Global cost of silencing science: editors and publishers have a duty to resist’, it is a masterclass in progressive, cultural Marxist writing, with a disturbing lack of any self-awareness. It really is that bad.
The editorial begins with this clangor:
“Public trust in scientific integrity is eroded by the politicisation of institutions under Donald Trump’s United States (US) presidency.”
The journal’s editors appear oblivious to their own complicity in the politicization of institutions here in New Zealand. Whether it was their lock-step adherence to the Ardern government during Covid and the persecution of medical and health professionals who held differing views during that time, or their more recent ideological adherence to gender interventions in defiance of growing scientific evidence – the editors are willfully blind.
Instead, they embrace what is colloquially known as Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS). It essentially blames everything on one man, thereby removing all and any responsibility from anyone else. It’s what you would also call scapegoating. It’s one thing to blame the Trump administration for particular actions, but it is quite another to put the blame for everything on him.
As you read on into the editorial, it reads as a dictionary – if not a thesaurus – of progressive wokeism. An obsession with diversity, equity, and inclusion – claiming that:
“Populations historically marginalized in science—including women, people of colour, and LGBTQ+ individuals—will again be pushed to the periphery.”
There is no evidence for this. More worrying, the editors are confirming their adherence to a political ideology rather than scientific excellence. If research and journal contributions are good, they are good regardless of who wrote them. The editors confirm that they are more interested in prioritising the work of selected groups, and not in whether their research is valuable or not.
The editors write about climate change, McCarthyism, fascism, fear, censorship, and harm. The editorial reads like an essay from a stage-one sociology student having just speed-read Ibram X. Kendi or Judith Butler.
Supposedly, too, “the scientific community bears a collective responsibility to uphold integrity and protect vulnerable voices.” Not a responsibility for sound research and trustworthy science – instead a commitment to left-wing collectivist approaches and a prioritizing of people based on perceived ‘oppressor, oppressed’ narratives.
If you needed any more evidence of the ideological capture within the New Zealand Medical Journal, it is this – the editors write about “resistance”. If ever there was one word that instantly aligns an organisation with the far-left, woke, and progressive movement, it is “resistance”. Marx and his mates would be proud.
*Note – this article was written by Family First staff
